Mommy Wolf: Raise A Cub, Claimed By His Beast Daddy-Chapter 33: Grievous Wounds

Marik’s heart sank when he saw the grievous wounds. His eyes turned bloodshot as he snapped his head toward the enraged bear.

He lunged forward and attacked with a viciousness he had never shown before, not even when he was fighting against the Dusk Star a while back.

"Grhh! Raaargghh!" Marik used all his strength to stab the bear’s neck with his claws, then tore it open until blood spurted out, incapacitating the beast and killing it after a long, painful growl.

At first, Marik saw nothing but red, but once the bear was dead, he finally calmed down.

He sheathed his claws and turned toward Sisi and the sobbing little boy.

"SISI!" Marik rushed to her, but just as he was about to inspect her wound, the crying boy spun around and quickly placed himself in front of Sisi, shielding her with his back.

"Don’t hurt her! Don’t hurt Sisi!" Jojo shouted.

Marik froze at the little boy’s action. Of course he knew this boy—Jojo, the small wolf cub Sisi had raised as her own.

But what he didn’t expect to see was the birthmark of the Dawn Star on his back.

The Dusk Star bore a crescent moon on his back, while the Dawn Star had a mark shaped like the sun. Those were the only sure ways Marik could identify his enemies.

He also knew well the difference between a real birthmark and a tattoo. When he saw Jojo’s birthmark, he realized that the enemy he had been searching for so long had been in front of him all along.

Jojo had never shifted into his beastman form because they met during autumn and winter, so Marik could only blame himself for being so clueless.

Seeing the mark now, Marik was finally able to identify Jojo’s lineage and end the cursed bloodline—at least for a long while, until the next Dusk and Dawn Star appeared again in some unforeseeable future.

’So, you’ve been hiding in plain sight all this time, you son of the devil,’ Marik thought as he glared at the mark. ’You hid behind an innocent woman to gain her sympathy and grow safely under her meticulous care. How clever. Heh, what else should I expect from a little devil like you?’

The sight of Jojo’s birthmark reignited the hostility he had buried for a while, the same rage he felt when he saw that cursed black wolf named Kael shot straight up to the top of his head. He thought of nothing but revenge as he brandished his claws once more, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

The Dawn Star had yet to mature. This was the perfect time to kill him before he grew into an even greater threat than his father.

Marik advanced on the boy, ignoring his desperate pleas as he tried to shield the heavily injured Sisi.

’This is for killing my family, you cursed boy!’

He raised his hand, ready to plunge his claws into Jojo’s back, pierce his skin, and kill the little wolf boy instantly by crushing his heart.

But just as the tip of his claw was about to touch Jojo’s skin, he suddenly heard Sisi’s faint voice. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Ma... rik... save... save... Jojo..." she murmured through labored breaths.

Her gaze was blurry, as if she stood at death’s door, but she still forced those words out of sheer desperation.

She knew her wounds might be too severe to survive, but Jojo still had a life ahead of him.

"Bring... Jojo out... he can’t see me... like this... he... can’t..." Sisi tried to say that Jojo shouldn’t witness her death. He had already lost his father, and if he saw his guardian die too, she feared he would be too traumatized to grow up healthy.

"NO! JOJO WILL STAY!" Jojo yelled desperately. "Jojo... Jojo promised to save you, Sisi! Don’t leave! I don’t know what to do if Sisi leaves like my Daddy too!"

"Silly... you still have... Uncle Marik..." Sisi forced a weak smile and looked at Marik with a hopeful gaze, wishing he would accept the responsibility she was passing onto raise the little wolf boy.

A pang of guilt hit Marik’s heart, for he was the one who had killed Jojo’s father, the Dusk Star. He would have killed Jojo too, had the father not thrown the boy off the cliff.

Marik hesitated. His savior had turned out to be the guardian of his greatest enemy. But seeing Sisi’s desperate plea and hopeful eyes despite being on the brink of death, he forced down his urge to kill Jojo and picked the boy up to separate him from her.

"LET ME GO! DON’T HURT SISI!" Jojo struggled with all his strength, but it made no difference.

"Where is her pouch?" Marik asked. "If you want to save her, show me her pouch. She has a lot of medicine in there."

Jojo struggled at first, especially because the man holding him was a tiger beastman, the same species that had hunted him and his father until they were separated.

But hearing the seriousness in Marik’s voice, Jojo slowly calmed down and pointed with his finger.

Marik set him down, and Jojo quickly ran to Sisi’s back pouch. Marik searched through it for Acate fruits and leaves, the same herbal medicine Sisi had once used to treat him.

He made Sisi eat the fruit first, then gently turned her to lay on her stomach so he could treat the wounds on her back. Just like before, Marik washed the Acate leaves with water from the flask and placed the damp leaves over her open wounds.

As the leaves absorbed the blood, Sisi’s expression eased slightly, and Marik finally relaxed.

He returned to Jojo, who anxiously asked, "Uncle, how is Sisi? Will she be okay?"

"She should be. She saved me using the same method back then," Marik replied, still unsure what to do with the little wolf boy.

"Then Jojo will stay by her side! Maybe she will need something later!"

"No need. You should stay with me near the entrance so she can rest. We’ll check on her later when she needs to change the leaves."

Jojo didn’t understand medicine, but he nodded obediently as long as it meant Sisi would get better.